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When to start?

After you are done selecting your primary school for your kid, we suddenly wake up few years before a big milestone or when hearing the buzz words "Grammar Schools", "Catchment" , "11+" , "Mock test"

Some of the parents would have a clear road map based on the past experience or from friends and family who had gone through the similar experience, luckily I was one such parent who was fortunate to be around friends who went thought this journey few years before my turn and they were vey kind enough to share some key insights involved in this whole 11+ journey.

The day I came to know about this 11+ the very first question I asked the parents was 

"when did you start the preparation? "

Although this differs from a child to child I found a pattern that works with majority of the kids and parents. Remember, this is a journey and it is always a good idea to start light and slowly increase the speed and complexity. So, when is it?


Year 3

Year 3 is the right age to learn to sit down in a place for 25-30 minutes and the kids don't have to do any specific preparation, but to do some school home works or some very light work sheets and some books. This is going to be the first test the kids would in their life, the actual exam would be for 1.5 hours to 2 hours depending on the pattern, 

 Fix a time that works for both the kids and try to stick to that schedule and continue all the way till early Year 4. This is when you might have to introduce some key books and practices.


I will write about some books and techniques that really worked for us in the next post.


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